A/N: Wow. It’s been about a year or so since I even looked at this thing. But somehow I managed to stumble across it, and I’ve decided to try and restart it again. And then, maybe I’ll go back and redo the first three chapters; they’re a bit odd. But yeah, I’m back!

Going to dedicate this chapter to anyone and everyone who has even told me that I’m a decent writer. And to my English teacher, because he’s cool. All hail the khaki god.

Disclaimer: I don’t own Finding Nemo or Disney/Pixar or anything of the sort. I just happen to like that movie.

True to the Heart

Chapter Four: Babysitting

The rest of the day, and the beginning of the next went by in a blur for Ben, who could only think about one thing. He was incredibly excited about the evening’s plans. Not only did he adore small children, he was going to get to spend the entire evening with Lia. As soon as school let out, he hurried home as fast as he could, in order to make preparations for tonight. He was planning on bringing some of his favorite toys and games, and a few movies.

As six o’clock rolled around, Ben gathered his ‘supplies’, said a farewell to his family, and headed out the door in search of the house. After locating it, he took a deep breath, knocking a few times on the front door.

Instead of an adult, or even Lia answering the door, there stood a girl and a boy. Ben smiled at them, “Hey. Is Lia here?” he asked, wondering if maybe he was early; he actually was a few minutes behind, plus, their parent’s car was already gone.

The two children smiled at each other as the girl spoke, “Yes, Lia is here, would you like to come in?” she asked, as both children plastered on angelic faces.

Ben looked at them, eyebrow raised at their seemingly innocent façades. “Sure,” he said, albeit a bit on the suspicious side. Upon entering the house, he began to look around at the rather fancy décor. However, the one thing he didn’t see was Lia. The children followed behind him, a rather wicked air about them.

After about two minutes of inconspicuously searching the entire first floor, Ben gave up, plopping down on the couch. He eyed the children, who were sitting on the floor, engrossed in a cartoon on TV. “Okay guys, where is Lia?” Ben asked exasperatedly.

The girl gave a small giggle while replying, “Oh, she’s somewhere. She was helping Adam with his practicing,” she nodded.

Adam also nodded, grinning at Ben, “Yeah, she was helping me with my Boy Scouts.

Ben looked at them, eyes slightly wide. There were many things that Adam could have been learning in Boy Scouts, the first ones coming to mind being something with fire. “Okay, you guys stay right here,” Ben ordered, quickly hopping off the couch and heading for the staircase.

As soon as he stepped foot on the second floor, he began searching the doors that lined either side of the hallway. After about 5 doors, he could hear something that sounded rather off in the distance, but in reality was behind the next door. Quickly opening it, he had to control himself from erupting into laughter.

When Adam had talked about ‘practicing his Boy Scouting’, he hadn’t meant anything with fire, much to Ben’s relief; what he had been referring to was knot tying. The room that he had stepped into was a bedroom, lit only by a couple of lamps scattered around the room, giving it a rather dark feeling to it. Sitting on the rather large, Victorian style bed was Lia, whose wrists were tied to one of the bedposts.

Although he was able to control his laughter, Ben couldn’t erase the smile on his face. As soon as Lia had spotted him, her mumbling ceased as she looked at him, almost glaring. “Finally, it’s about time you showed up Benny,” Lia said, a cross between relief and anger on her face.

Ben approached the bed, taking a seat on the end, the smile still encompassing the majority of his face. “What happened to you?” he asked, about to lose his composure and break down into laughter.

Lia sighed, rolling her eyes, “Well, Hannah told me that Adam was upstairs practicing for something for Boy Scouts and told me that he needed my help. So when I got up here, Adam was sitting on the bed with some rope. He told me to sit down, and I did, and he said we were going to be doing some knot tying,” she paused, an eyebrow raised at the semi-red faced Ben.

“Little did I know, he was quite the master of knot tying. When we were tying some rope into a knot, he looked like he was having a lot of trouble tying his. So I reached over to help him, and suddenly he turned into the knot-tying king and had managed to tie my wrists together, and then tied that to the bed. And then the little bugger left me up here,” Lia sighed, her face turning pink from the embarrassment of being overcome by a nine-year-old.

Ben finally could not take it anymore, and the moment she had finished, he burst into laughter, tears forming at the corners of his eyes; there was no way he would be capable of competent speech at the moment.

Lia glared at him, “Ha ha ha. Now, get over here and untie me,” she said, eyeing him.

Ben managed to subside most of the laughter, although he was grinning like mad. “Hmm, well, I could. Or, I could not.”

Lia gaped at him, “Benjamin, get over here now,” she commanded.

Ben shook his head, “There is no rule that says I have to untie you. Besides, why would I? Think about it. I’ve got you alone in this large house; the only other occupants are two small children. We’re in a bedroom on a completely different floor, and you’re tied to the bed. Why on earth would I untie you?” Ben asked, winking at her.

After considering this for a few moments, Lia’s look of distress turned to one of sorrow as the glare turned into a rather puppy dog-eyes look. “Benny,” she said, trying to earn some sympathy points, “come on. You know you want to untie me.”

Ben crossed his arms over his chest and looked at her, putting up a defense system for the look she was giving him. “No, not really. Besides, what do I get out of letting you go free?” he asked, interested.

Lia thought about it, sighing slightly. “If you let me go, I’ll give you a present.” And she left it at that, seeing if he’d take the bait.

Ben pondered this, for a present could mean anything from being smacked in the head to being forcefully overtaken with love. He decided to go against the bad instinct, and climbed over to where she was, working on the knot, which, was indeed quite skillfully done. As soon as he had released her, he resumed his spot on the end of the bed, wondering if he had made the right move.

After rubbing her wrists for a minute, Lia looked at him joyfully. Apparently, he had made the right move. She moved over to where he was sitting, grinning at him. “Thank you, Benny,” she said, before kissing him on the cheek.

Many things were going through Ben’s head at the moment; oh how he had missed the feelings that were now surging through him. Oh how badly he wanted to just kiss her back, on the lips, like he had always wished he had the courage to do. However, he refrained from doing so, for he didn’t want to completely ruin any chance he might have. Instead, he gave her a heartfelt smile.

After just looking at each other for a few minutes, nearly the same thoughts going through both of their heads, a clock downstairs chimed seven. Snapping out of the trance she was currently in, Lia stood, “I should probably go check on the kids in case they’ve done something bad.” And with that, she left the room.

Ben sat there only for a few seconds, quickly following after her. He was afraid that she’d do something to Adam in return for the lovely trick he’d played on her.

He apparently had made the right move, for as he approached the spacious living room, he could hear shouting and giggling. He quickened his pace, and just grinned at the sight he saw.

Hannah was sitting on the couch, giggling and clapping. Lia was chasing Adam around the room, the couch being the center of their little chase. Ben feared for Adam, because Lia was quite swift when it came to running; he’d endured that plenty of times when they were younger.

As Hannah grinned at Ben, he sighed, waiting for the right moment to save Adam from imminent doom. When he saw his chance, he grabbed Lia by the waist to stop her form chasing Adam; in doing so, the velocity at which she was running was vast, sending both of them tumbling to the ground. Although he had stopped her, Ben couldn’t seem to be able to remove his arms from around her.

Adam sat down on the couch panting, but grinning, for he had gotten away twice. Hannah was still grinning, patting her brother on the back.

Lia was a bit breathless, but seemed to be glaring at Ben again. “Why did you stop me? I almost had him!” she exclaimed, a bit saddened that she had been stopped.

“You know that if you would have caught him you might have killed him,” Ben said knowingly, for he had been taken down many-a time by her in her little fits of rage.

Lia knew he was right, but hated being told she was wrong. Instead of falsely rebutting, she remained silent. Ben finally let go of her, standing and then helping her up.

The whining of small children broke the silence. Apparently, they always had dinner at 7:15 exact, and it was approaching that time. Hannah was saying something about having thirteen hamburgers, while Adam said he wanted something along the lines of shrimp fettuccine or something of the like.

Ben laughed, going off into the other room without a word. Lia watched him leave, wondering where it was that he was going. She then began the task of trying to calm down the children.

Ben eventually came back in the room, holding a number of board games. Hannah and Adam quickly chose one as they all sat down to play. After about twenty minutes of intense playing, the doorbell rang. Both kids made a mad dash for the door, but Ben beat them to it. It was the pizza guy. Ben paid him as both kids took off for the kitchen, Ben and Lia following.

After they ate, Hannah and Adam decided they wanted to watch a movie. Not wanting to watch something incredibly ridiculous, Ben went to find his bag of goodies. He quickly found a movie, bringing it back into the living room and popping it in, then sitting down on the couch next to Lia; both kids were laying in the floor right in front of the screen as Finding Nemo appeared.

About the time Marlin and Dory reached Sydney, the children had fallen sound asleep. Lia and Ben smiled at each other, taking them into their rooms and tucking them in. Meeting back in the living room, they sat back down on the couch.

Not more than twenty minutes later, the house had been tidied up, and Hannah and Adam’s parents had just arrived home. They paid the pair, and bade them a good night.

Ben followed Lia out to her car, smiling the entire time. Upon reaching her vehicle, she turned to face Ben. “Thanks for helping tonight, Benny. I had a really nice time.”

Ben smiled, “Think nothing of it. Maybe we can do it again sometime, but without the children and all.”

Lia grinned at him, “Why Benny, are you asking me out on a date?”

A faint pink color was now evident on Ben’s cheeks, “Well, yeah, sure, why not,” he said, beginning to become incoherent like he did when he got nervous.

Lia looked like she was thinking very hard on this matter, causing Ben to become more and more anxious. Finally, she spoke, “Sure, I’d love to,” she said with a smile as a look of relief washed over his face.

“Ok, well, I’ll pick you up at 7 on Saturday then,” Ben said, almost in a question, for he hoped that was a good time.

Lia nodded, “Ok, Saturday sounds good. I’ll see you then. Thanks again, Benny,” she said, before reaching up and placing a quick kiss on his cheek. She then got in her car and went home.

Ben stood there for a moment, just thinking about how well his life was going right then. Little did he know, it wasn’t about to be all rainbows and smiles.